Chapter 2 -- "This
proud temple shall rise" 1893-1903
Christ Church was in grave danger; it might not survive. The bishop did
what he could to keep the parish alive, sending various clergy down the new interurban
line to Vancouver, including his own curate at Holy Trinity in New Westminster,
Henry ("Father Pat") Irwin. The parish's troubles were directly
related to the economic climate. Vancouver's population seemed now to be
leveling off at about 16,000. The Panic of 1893 started a deep recession across
the continent. The debt to the C.P.R. continued to accumulate. The church stood
unfinished. Bishop Sillitoe had closed churches before in his frontier diocese.
Perhaps he now would have to close Christ Church.
Finding a new rector took a long time. Not only did the congregation
want an evangelical, they needed a leader who could deal with the financial
problems. The search lasted nearly ten months. Finally, they found the Rev.
Louis Norman Tucker, then at St. George's Church in Montreal. Ordained deacon
in 1876, priest two years later, he had attended Bishop's University,
Lennoxville, Quebec, and studied theology in Montral. The time was ripe for a
challenge out west--and he had been offered $150 a month. He arrived in
December, and conducted his first service on the 17th. Within two months, on
February 12, 1894, he had taken the chair at a special vestry meeting to decide
what to do. Tucker wasted no time. The next Sunday he noted in the vestry book:
"Launched scheme to build Christ Church." A week later another brief
note: "Ill from wounded finger."
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The Rev. L.N.Tucker, second rector |
Cash on hand at March 22, 1894, totalled $288.87. Searching about to
find a way out of this desperate financial situation, Tucker enrolled the
services of a 32-year-old articling student-at-law, J.W. Weart. A native of
Ontario, Weart migrated west, working as a teacher and bookkeeper in Manitoba
before coming to Vancouver. To rescue Christ Church, Weart devised a
complicated scheme. He incorporated "The Christ Church Building Co.,
Limited Liability." The company was authorized to issue up to 600 shares
of stock. The value of each share was set at $100. One hundred shares went to
the church in exhange for title to its assets, and 400 shares were sold to subscribers,
most of them men in the congregation.
Each purchaser undertook to pay up to $100 per share if called upon, but
initially only $10 was collected -- at the rate of a dollar per month for ten
months. This gave the building company $4,000 cash and an uncalled asset of
$36,000. Weart then went to the Sun Life Insurance Company and, putting up the
building company's assets as secuurity, obtained a mortgage loan of $18,000.
The church now had $22,000 in cash -- $4,000 from the sale of shares, and
$18,000 from the insurance company. Sun Life, however, as added security,
insisted on writing three 20-year life insurance policies on certain church
members. The building company agreed to pay a single, $10,000 premium for this
insurance. Now they had $12,000 cash and a big mortgage at six per cent
interest -- high for the time. With city taxes, the congregation was obligated
to pay $2,000 annually. To some it might have seemed a bit of a shell game, but
Weart's scheme worked: the recession might continue, but with the $12,000 the
church was completed.
Differences between Christ Church and Vancouver's railway- connected
business were forgotten as Tucker successfully enlisted its help. Freemasons
had been active in British Columbia as early as 1859, and many leaders of the
city, and indeed of the Church of England in the colony, were members of the
Grand Lodge A.F. & A.M. Though the secret society by this time had little
to do with masonery, members of the order volunteered to lay the cornerstone of
the new church. Years later city archivist J.S. Matthews told the story
(perhaps apocryphal) that at a meeting of the church committee to arrange for
the laying of the corner stone, a non-freemason observed that he did not see
why the Freemasons should be involved; that it seemed to him that all they did
was dance around in circles like "a lot of wild Indians with
tom-toms." It was suggested to this person that everytime they completed a
circle they "put something in the pot." The objector replied:
"In that case we had better have them."
An elaborate ceremony was carried out at the southeast corner of the
building on Saturday, July 28, 1894, presided over by Acting Most Worshipful
Grand Master Lucy R. Johnson, assisted by Brother D. B. Charleson, both
original members of the congregation. With drawn swords, rods, banners, a band,
books, Bible, squares, compasses, silver vessels filled with oil and wine, the
gold vessel filled with corn, the brethren formed the Masonic hollow square
inside a circle of curious spectators. The ceremony included four hymns, an
anthem, a solo, and a Masonic ode; a casket was placed in the stone containing
among other items, a list of workmen who constructed the building, copies of
two daily newspapers, and the constitution of Grand Lodge. The corn, wine and
oil were poured on the stone. The brethren passed around the stone and placed
on it their offering. Grand Master Johnson concluded: "Brethren, the work
is done! Upon a solid foundation we have placed our memorial stone... In all
its appointments, and with all the glory of its architectural design, this
proud temple shall rise to its loft roof, a fitting testimonial to the devotion
and liberality of the Congregation of Christ Church."
Construction went quickly, and on February 17, 1895, fourteen months to
the day after his first service in the "root house," Tucker conducted
the service of dedication of the completed building. It was a great
improvement, although the contractor had to be prodded to plug drafts, and soon
the church committee was asking Tucker to use "his influence with the
Ladies" to get them to raise $100 to fix the windows. Soil was secured for
the grounds, but there was no money for landscaping other than to set out a few
maple trees and plant Boston ivy next to the walls. Money was found for music,
however. An organ fund was established and over three thousand dollars raised
toward purchase of the church's first organ. An organ blower was engaged for
five dollars a month. By the beginning of 1896, the church committee reported
at Easter, "the seats were practically all allotted, and several families
having applied, it was considered in the best interest of the church to make
room for new pews by placing the present ones a little closer together... The
system of allotting seats only to those who subscribe to the Envelope Fund has
been most satisfactory, and we strongly recommend its continuation."
In 1897 the recession was still lingering. The church was occasionally
late in its mortgage payments. Regularity in giving was stressed. A note in the
pews read that anyone "who may have come unprepared will please place a
slip of paper on the plate stating the amount they wish to contribute, and the
Wardens will have much pleasure in calling for it during the week." Tucker
also asked the parish for a Poor Fund: "There are no funds at my disposal
for purposes of charity. There are not many poor among us, but occasionally we
meet with cases of extreme hardship..." By 1898 finances had improved to
the point that the rector was granted a raise to $175 per month, the sexton to
$25, an Organist Walter F. Evans to $30 (but he had to pay the blower). Money
pressures had eased, the congregation could turn its attention to other
questions such as whether it was it advisable to dress the choir in surplices.
They decided it was.
In 1900, a telephone was installed in the rector's house "for the
convenience of the congregation." It was to cost $20 for six months. A
major step that year came at the Easter vestry, It was resolved that the rector
be empowered to hire a curate. By year's end he had found Henry L. Roy, 25, a
recent graduate of Wycliffe College, and a chess player. He later headed the
Chess Federation of Canada. The committee authorized $80 travelling expenses
from Winnipeg, where Roy was currently working, and a salary of $33 per month,
with a promise to raise it by $8 a month annually. Roy arrived in January,
1901, and was put to work with the youth. Meanwhile Tucker was full of ideas
for developing the parish. He wanted the church to set up a Twentieth Century
Fund; to hire a Chinese-speaking priest to minister to Vancouver's Chinese
community; to run a detailed Lenten program; to begin a parish magazine; to get
more people to take envelopes. Active in civic affairs, he helped found city
museum. And he wanted a new rectory. The wardens said they would try to find
one, but failed before Tucker decided to move on.
When an offer came late in the summer of 1902 from the Missionary
Society of the Canadian Church to become General Secretary, Tucker accepted.
The church committee accepted his resignation with great regret. Tucker,
however, had outgrown the west coast. He later became dean of St. Paul's
Cathedral in London, Ontario, and was awarded a doctorate from Western
University. He also became one of the earliest and most eloquent advocates of
Aboriginal rights, urging as early as 1914 that Canada's Native Peoples be
granted citizenship status, and attacking the British Columbia government for
its refusal to consider Native Indian land claims.
Tucker delivered his farewell sermon November 2, 1902, and left his curate in charge. The congregation wished him farewell, and the wardens in an effusive testimonial said that during his "ministrations the progress of the parish in every direction has been phenomenal... [you did] catch with unerring instinct the temper and spiritual needs of the people you have lived amongst."